Rollerblades, bikes, and hysteria

So one of the more poignant things I do remember from our bicycle-riding days: I was probably 10 or 11, and we went out riding around the neighborhood with our bikes, but also brought along our rollerblades so that we could skate around in the playground. When we got to the playground, we put on the blades and had our fun with them. By the time we got bored and wanted to leave, we conceived of the ingenious and daring idea of biking WITH our rollerblades on. I was very enthusiastic about the idea and whined about it, while you, the sensible older sibling, decided against it, probably foreseeing worse accidents than we've already had while just rollerblading. We barely had the coordination necessary to move around on any kind of wheels.

So anyway, being the brat that I was, I got mad at the fact that I couldn't mortally endanger myself by biking and blading at the same time, and rushed home in a huff, leaving you a block behind. I got home, and you still didn't arrive after 10 minutes, so I went looking for you outside. You were nowhere to be found. After another 10 minutes, I started panicking and searching the streets, and when I still couldn't find you, I went back home and had the horrible idea that some kidnapper had swiped you off the streets while I was huffing home. So then I started to cry, and I mean real, agonized, big gulps of breath, bordering-on-hysteria crying, with fist pounding and all. I seriously thought you had been kidnapped and would go missing like one of those children whose faces you see on the back of milk cartons. I called mom at work and told her you were missing between fits of crying, but while I was on the phone, you magically appeared at the back door with a bag from the video store. Then I stopped crying and said, "Um, nevermind...I guess she just went to the store." And that was yet another episode where the sudden disappearance/ delayed reappearance of Maggie Lee during her teenage years has caused mortal fear to strike in the hearts of her nearest and dearest.